Also the lost remains
by Karte
Summary: After a long time, Flippy comes back to the former battlefield. ONESHOT


**The Characters belongs to MondoMedia.**

I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>It was noon. Gray clouds obscured the weak sun. A strong wind let the remaining leaves of the trees rustle, enveloped the whole place in an oppressive and unsteady noise. Black clouds in the distance announced renewed rain.<br>The ground was still wet from yesterday's rain.  
>It was normal for this time of year. When the sun sinks lower and is increasingly rare to see. When the remaining leaves covered the ground and the nature prepared for the approaching winter. When the days are getting darker and the strong north wind is bringing biting cold with it. When the warmth and cheerfulness of summer are only distant memories. It was the time when life is going to be calmer and the mood of people sinks, as would all guessed, that hard times would dawn.<br>You spend more and more time in your warm home, where comfort and, if you were lucky, the lovers are waiting for you with a gentle smile under the snuggly blanket.

In this time of peace and tension, Flippy was always very aware of his life. Free from the hustle and things to do, he thoughts about the future, the present and the terrible past.  
>And exactly this past, drove him to be here at this particular place at this very moment, instead of being at home, with his loving wife and wonderful children.<p>

Another gust of wind hit him and brought cool air under his clothes.  
>"Brrrr.", he made, while he tighten his wrapped camo jacket around him.<br>By the way in which he walked, stone crosses were placed in the exact distance from each other, all exactly identical; to many hundreds ...

He glanced in passing through the dirty inscriptions. It was hard to read them. Wind and Weather set to the stone, made him cracked, uneven and dull. The Grass overgrown already on the way and fern sometimes windy over the crosses.  
>Apparently nobody cared about this special place. Although it was created just 20 years ago.<p>

Flippy slowed his steps. The small, dirty, engraved mark were too illegible, which gave nothing more than a name and a date. But there were so much more into it.  
>Each date of the hundreds of stone crosses standing in a period of four years. Four years in which hell was conjured up, from that much too many did not come back. A hell Flippy was also lost into it and could leave behind him only with a lot of power.<br>Each one name stood for a very unique, special life. A life full hopes and dreams, memories and choices, weal and woe.  
>And every single stone was a tragedy. For a person that was brutally torn from life in the name of honor, for grieving parents, abandoned children and destroyed love.<p>

This place was a memorial ... For the price demanded by the war.  
>But the world seemed to forget this place and what he meant. It was empty. No one took care of him, no one visited him. Only one veteran had come. For the first time in his life.<br>His nose began to run, while he continued to walk through the rows of graves. The Grass lowered his steps and would not be the constant rustling of leaves in the wind, it would be dead silent in the cemetery. He was tired and cold, but his eyes still looked stoically through each inscription. At last he had brought over here unto it coming. Far away from home, in the country of which he had once vowed never to set foot once again.

Where _he_ had fought and where _they_ died.

_I must find them_., he thought bitterly. He had so much to tell them. He still could not accept, how they were torn from his life. After all, what they had experienced and survived together. With everything they had stand up to him, and still did. He had thought they would survive everything together and return home alive. Forever connected, due to the covenant they made.  
>Their death was so unreal, so incomprehensible. Even after all these years ...<p>

A sequence of letters let him come to a stop abruptly. With growing excitement Flippy walked in front of that grave and scraped away the dirt that covered a part of the inscription, and there it was.  
>SNEAKY<br>Shivering, he looked at the grave next to it.  
>MOUSE "KA BOOM"<br>Awe came over him. He had found them.

Shivering with cold and excitement, he took two steps back and stood right between the graves. Finally after all these years, he stood before them.  
>His mind was empty. Stunned by grief and endless shame.<br>A breath of wind came up, let leaves fly past him as he stood motionless. You were able to view the ravages of time clear on their grave stones. A narrow crack went through KaBoom's Cross and Sneaky's was covered with lichens. He wanted to tell them so much, but how they lay so dead and deserted, he couldn´t.  
>Everything appeared to him at once unworthy, useless. They were dead and nothing in the world would bring them back. Forever and ever.<br>It started with a single small tear.

"Brothers ...", he whispered only.  
>He could not take it anymore, he simply couldn´t. His vision blurred, his legs loosed to holding him and he fell to his knees.<br>"I'm sorry.", he sobbed. Salty tears broke away from his cheek and fell into the wet grass.

"I´m-I'm s-so sorry ... A-ll m-my gu-guilt.", he cried. All dams broke and all his feelings, his sadness, fear, regret and pain broke into uncontrollable sobs and burning tears.  
>In horrible pain, he clutched his chest, right where his heart was. It felt as if it would burst and the world vanished in grief and guilt.<br>_I killed them_., it echoed again and again in his head. Aggravated his mental anguish.  
>He let his head bang on the ground and he cried out his pain on the grass, as it would offer some form of comfort.<p>

"Plea-Please brothers ...", he whispered in utter despair, and sat up again.

"FORGIVES ME!",

he shouted to the world, in the hope that they somehow somewhere got his message.  
>Everything was spinning and he collapsed on the ground again. Unable to think clearly, he continued to cry.<p>

He did not know how long he lay on the damp ground and howled. Everything was blurred and unreal, as he walked between dream and reality.  
>But suddenly he felt something again. A gentle heat, as if someone was with him. A presence, too weak for actually be notices. Something that comforted him and let dry his tears.<p>

Gathering forces, he leaned his upper body back up and stared at the graves. Something flickered in front of them. His vision was still vague, but it did not look like he would imagine.  
>The flicker was getting clearer and formed two transparent figures. Their contours formed two familiar guys, both in army uniform. They looked calm and smiled at the kneeling veterans gently.<br>He gasped in disbelief.

"Sneaky ... KaBoom ... Are you really?"  
>The figures smiled friendlier at him in response. Stunned and confused he stared at them a while.<br>"I´m so sorry for everything.", he finally whispered scratchy. "I was no brother for you."  
>The ghosts grabbed in their jackets and brought out their dog tags. Flippy hesitated before he took out his. It was not the same as then. There were new with a carved image of his wife. With a questioning expression, he picked it up.<br>The ghosts just nodded understandingly and indicated him with a gesture to get up. When he did it, the spirits of Mouse and Sneaky were holding up their dog tags up together.

Flippy recognized the gesture immediately. It was the ritual, as they had mixed their blood to become brothers. A covenant should persist for eternity.  
>He hesitated uncertainly, but Sneaky and Mouse nodded at him encouragingly. Finally, he lifted his dog tags into the air as well to connect them with them from the others. He felt no resistance as he touched the other.<br>_"__We __always __remain __brothers__, __Flippy__._", echoed Sneaky's voice in his head, without moving his lips.  
><em>"<em>_Our __time together __remain__ forever __existant__.",_ affirmed Mouse.  
>Somehow, relief came over him. He did not know whether it was real or whether he just hallucinating, but the certainty that their covenant remain despite the death, warmed him and made him smile timidly.<p>

Then the ghosts began to fade. It was probably the time to go again.  
>While he was there watching his brothers, how they slowly, giving joyful glances, disappeared, Flippy had to thinking about the time they had together.<br>The good and bad times. The adventures which had existed together. To the sorrow and the joy they had shared ... and he understood now why they would always remain brothers.

"Thank you ...", he said sincerely. The ghosts nodded and disappeared completely.  
>Flippy stayed for a while before he fell back to his knees. Flooded with beautiful thoughts, he dreamy stroked the proliferating Grass over their bodies buried long ago. They had given him something that was more valuable than anything else in the world. Something whose happiness he had received as a husband and father again and he would never have get without his brothers.<p>

"Thank you for showing me to love."


End file.
